Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Millennials' iPhone + Sex Addiction = STD Epidemic

Seeking casual sex? There's an app for that! Contracted a sexually transmitted disease? There's an app for that TOO!

"You can buy anything online all the time. Almost everything we can do instantaneously. There's an expectation in our society for things to happen more quickly."-- Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, Harvard Medical School

— Emotionally devastated over a broken relationship? Sorry, there's NO app for that!

According to President Obama's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis have increased for the first time since 2006, with the per-capita incidence in California leading the way, especially in Los Angeles County.

Some public health experts have blamed the heavy use of online dating apps, arguing that they lead to more casual sex among people 25 and younger, who are the most likely to be infected and also the least inclined to seek testing . . .

Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in the U.S. had been fluctuating for several years, but all surged in 2014. A particularly staggering statistic, the 1.4 million chlamydia cases reported that year, marked the highest number of annual cases of any condition ever reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to The [Los Angeles] Times.

Sexually active women under 25 are supposed to have annual screenings for [chlamydia and gonorrhea] infections, because they're considered high risk and bear the brunt of the consequences of most STDs. Each year, at least 24,000 women become infertile because of complications of STDs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

. . . Last year, Planned Parenthood launched an app in California through which men and women can order chlamydia and gonorrhea tests. A paper found that in 2009 there were already 27 such services, and a Google search now yields hundreds of results.

One such start-up, based in Hollywood, began as a way to try to make sex safer, especially for people who might be using apps to find new partners.

In 2013, [Lora Ivanova and Ursula Hessenflow] launched myLAB Box, which sells test kits online for chlamydia and gonorrhea, HIV, trichomoniasis and hepatitis C. The kits — which cost $79 to $189 — require a urine sample, a vaginal swab or blood from a finger prick to send to the lab.

But AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein worries that as these tests become more popular, it will be difficult to make sure people are getting treated once they're diagnosed.

Already, there are problems following up with patients who order tests online. In the program run by L.A. County's Health Department, only about half of the 9,000 kits mailed out were returned for testing, which is in line with other programs' results.

In 2014, 1.4 million cases of chlamydia were reported, a rate of 456.1 cases per 100,000 people, which was up 2.8 percent from 2013. Rates of primary and secondary syphilis (the most infectious stages of syphilis) and gonorrhea have both increased since 2013, by 15.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively.

In 2014, nationally there were 350,062 reported cases of gonorrhea (a rate of 110.7 per 100,000) and 19,999 reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis (6.3 per 100,000).

According to the CDC, syphilis has been called “the great imitator” because it has so many possible symptoms, many of which look like symptoms of other diseases.

The painless syphilis sore that a person may develop early in the infection can be confused for an ingrown hair, zipper cut, or other seemingly harmless bump, the CDC said.

People can also be infected with syphilis and have mild symptoms or none at all.

"Young women between 15 and 24 years of age have the highest rate of chlamydia infections," said Dr. M. Winston Tilghman, senior physician and STD controller for the county. "Chlamydia and gonorrhea both can result in infertility and other long-term reproductive health issues, which make prevention particularly important in this age group."